53034 AgRicuLTuRE & RuRAL DEvELOpmENT NOTES Third Annual Golden Plough Award for Excellence in Project Supervision Empowerment And poverty Reduction iSSuE 52 Through infrastructure And Service JANuARy provision in Rural pakistan 2010 By QAzi ASmAT iSA, NAiLA AHmED, AND guNNAR LARSON Poverty in Pakistan is overwhelmingly rural. Some two- that results from agricultural production accrues to thirds of Pakistan's population, and over 60 percent of higher income farmers--who typically spend a dispro- the country's poor, live in rural areas. In 2005, average portionate amount of their income on urban goods per capita expenditures in rural areas were 31 percent and services. This inequality seriously limits the impacts lower than in urban areas.1 This inequality between of agricultural growth on rural poverty, and is a major urban and rural areas is re-enforced by inequality within cause of sustained poverty and low productivity among and between rural areas. Owing to uneven access to small farmers and rural nonfarm households. It also land and useable water, most of the increased income points to the importance of effectively targeting the poor in contexts in which resources intended for them are likely to be captured by more privileged groups.2 Inequality between geographic locations is compounded by inequality within households, generally to the disad- vantage of women, and often to their severe disadvan- tage. Women's employment is limited by the same cul- tural restrictions that limit their access to education and health services, and these impose serious constraints on their autonomy, mobility, and on the types of liveli- hoods that are available to them. Their lack of access to education and resulting low-skill levels limits their oppor- tunities for employment further. Among those who do work, labor market participation is characterized by a much narrower array of occupations than are available to men. These occupations tend to be low wage and tend to keep women close to or even inside the home. Women in rural areas are almost twice as likely to work as women in urban areas, and their occupations tend to be concentrated around agriculture.3 The constraints on their mobility and access to resources has long been rec- ognized as contributing to their low levels of agricultural productivity--and to their higher levels of poverty and vulnerability.4 With respect to livelihood opportunities, over half of the women in Pakistan suffer "poverty of opportunity" compared to one-third of men. Photo: © Curt Carnemark / World Bank THE WORLD BANK Providing the poor--and poor women in particular--with as a coordinating "apex" institution. In this capacity it was access to resources and services is therefore a strategic responsible for appraising, supporting and monitoring the priority for increasing agricultural productivity, expanding progress of the poverty reduction programs of participating nonfarm rural employment, and reducing rural poverty. NGOs. These "partner organizations" were in reality respon- It also requires capacity building among the local govern- sible for implementing project activities. They were selected ment agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) based on eligibility criteria that reflected their track records in that deliver services to the poor. If these services are to be carrying out interventions that effectively reduced poverty. demand driven, organization and mobilization among poor While the PPAF monitored the performance of its partner producers and communities are required to develop the kind organizations, a World Bank supervision team periodically of social capital that will increase their voice in articulating monitored the PPAF and was impressed by the governance what services they require.5 Should the delivery of services structure of the PPAF Board of Directors and their objectivity and provision of infrastructure be sufficient to raise their and independence from political influence. Their impressions incomes and expand their purchasing power, then increasing were generally confirmed by the findings of the project's consumer demand among these groups will be more likely to implementation completion report, which was completed attract private investment, which up to now has often found in June 2004, six months after the project itself came to a little incentive to serve them. This will also require improve- close. Well before the project closed, therefore, World Bank ments in the rural investment climate in many parts of the project staff and their counterparts in the PPAF began devel- country, where investment rates are insufficient to support oping the concept for the PPAF II project. The concept was the kind of growth needed to reduce poverty. Investment in formally reviewed in April 2003 and approved by the World infrastructure is important both to establish the conditions Bank Board of Directors the following December. The project for a vital rural economy and to improve human develop- became effective in April 2004, just four months after the ment outcomes, and much of the initial investment in water close of the first project. supply and sanitation, irrigation, transport, and education Like its predecessor, PPAF II would employ an integrated infrastructure will necessarily be public. Much of this public approach to build institutions of the poor, develop their investment will need to focus on natural resources, espe- capacity, and then provide them with micro-credit grants for cially irrigation and groundwater, on which rural populations small-scale infrastructure projects; training and skill develop- are the most directly dependent. Pakistan's land and water resources are closely related and, in addition to saline and ment; and social-sector interventions. It would concentrate waterlogged lands, the effects of rangeland degradation and even further on women and their skills, human capital, and pollution from agricultural runoff are disproportionately felt livelihoods. By 2008, the project would impact over 10 million by the rural poor.6 people, and mobilize over 66,000 community organizations in 27,000 localities across 111 districts. More than 13,000 THE pAKiSTAN pOvERTy village projects were implemented. The Project would issue ALLEviATiON FuND pROJEcTS i 1.5 million microcredit loans of an average US$150, expand- AND ii ing Pakistan's microfinance sector from 60,000 borrowers to In August 1999 the World Bank's Pakistan Poverty Alleviation more than 1,250,000.8 Fund Project became effective, with the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Company (PPAF) serving as the implement- SupERviSiON ing agency. The project's objectives were to increase incomes The geographic scale of the PPAF II and the multiple sec- among poor households by providing them with loans and tors that its operations focused on entailed daunting chal- technical support; to increase their access to physical infra- lenges for supervision. The scope of its activities generated structure in order to improve their livelihood opportunities; a massive volume of information. Adding to the challenges and to develop the capacity of the PPAF and participat- of analyzing and acting upon this information are the chal- ing NGOs, which were "seen as conduits for transferring lenges of coordinating the activities of PPAF's far-flung net- resources to the poor."7 While the PPAF was officially the work of partner organizations, and of monitoring qualitative implementing agency for the project, its role was to serve aims that are difficult to capture with existing indicators. 2 Compounding these demands was the addition of recovery photograph and subsequently write about their hosts in efforts following the October 2005 Kashmir Earthquake, order to record their experiences, providing the basis for case which the project team had to respond to rapidly. studies. The combination of questionnaires and photographs The World Bank project team adapted its structure to meet document conditions and eventually provide reference points these challenges in a number of ways. The task team leader with which to measure future outcomes. Immersion activities and almost all of the safeguards, financial management, and have usefully supplemented other monitoring activities and procurement personnel are based in-country, where they has been instrumental in chronicling qualitative changes in can respond to issues quickly. 360° feedback and immersion the lives of the poor that cannot be fully captured by quan- activities were two innovative practices introduced to foster titative indicators. cohesiveness and to facilitate a more intimate understanding SuSTAiNABiLiTy of the project's qualitative impacts. Every six months a supervi- sion mission is undertaken, beginning at the national level to The sustainability of PPAF outcomes is a prominent practical review overall progress before moving to the provincial level to priority among project objectives, and is pursued by building a meet with select partner organizations and review the issues strong network of practitioners and institutions that will endure they have experienced in implementing project activities. long beyond the life of the project. Close and intense supervi- sion has resulted in PPAF II consistently receiving satisfactory The 360° feedback process, in particular, was instrumental and above performance ratings and high scores on governance in developing trust and mutual understanding with partner issues. PPAF II is the first project in the World Bank's Pakistan organizations. The process was carried out by an indepen- portfolio to be allowed disbursements based on financial dent consultant using questionnaires, and this proved to be management reports. The additional US$238 million of the very effective in cultivating transparency and the perception earthquake recovery component in 2005 tested the resilience that monitoring was impartial. Neither World Bank nor PPAF of the Project and its partner organizations. According to local personnel attended the meetings to encourage the partner news sources, they more than met the test. organizations to be open in discussing their concerns and providing feedback about their experience working with PPAF is not only the first institution in PPAF and the Bank. At a subsequent workshop, partner the country to complete the first fully organizations, PPAF, and Bank staff met to discuss the find- reconstructed school as a permanent ings and to develop a deeper understanding of each others' structure in the earthquake affected visions. This enabled them to develop objectives for project areas, but it is also the first agency in teams and to identify solutions to prevailing problems and constraints. PPAF now regularly holds 360° feedback pro- the country to complete comprehensive cesses with partner organizations and beneficiaries and as damage assessment through a house-to- a result has been able to foster a collegial and purposeful house survey. working environment. Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Immersion activities have also proved to be invaluable in disburses Rs 4 billion in AJK, NWFP enabling the project team to better understand their clients Nida Butt, Special Correspondent, Pakistan Times, October 20, 2006 and the conditions they face. During each supervision mis- sion, Bank, PPAF, and partner-organization staff spend, on The use of strict monitoring and house-to-house damage average, two days and two nights residing in the homes of assessment of those affected by the earthquake also helped beneficiaries. They receive no special privileges except for to identify and discard 23,000 bogus compensation claims, bottled water, sharing the resources and company of their a measure that saved some US$55 million. Outcomes hosts. In these informal settings, hosts speak openly about like this have established the PPAF's reputation with ben- issues close to their hearts--how they spend their days, their eficiaries, partner organizations, government officials, and hopes and fears, the challenges they face, and their experi- donors. The International Fund for Agricultural Development ences participating in the project. PPAF developed guidelines (IFAD), for instance, now channels significant funds for and questionnaires to facilitate discussions. Visiting teams micro-financed and earthquake reconstruction through the 3 PPAF, and employs it to supervise a number of its projects. Program in Indonesia joined a PPAF supervision mission and Immersion activities and 360° feedback have also been was sufficiently impressed by the experience to introduce the helpful in cultivating the ownership among borrowers and immersion program in that Program. In addition to lending stakeholders that will be crucial for the sustainability of PPAF operations, a Bank team working on analytic and advisory outcomes. PPAF has now established formal, regional-level activities to study the effects of drought on communities in partner organization development networks, including the this country began using the PPAF immersion model as one Balochistan Partner Organization Network, the Sindh Coastal of their principal investigative methods. Development Network, and the Earthquake Rehabilitation In March 2008, the PPAF II Project team received the and Reconstruction Network. All of these are using the 360° Agriculture and Rural Development Department's Golden feedback process in their work. In the future, the lessons Plough Award for Excellence in Project Supervision. learned during the immersion visits will be brought together Supervision is exceptionally challenging in emergency situa- in a "reverse immersion" to inform the preparation of the next phase of PPAF. This will ensure that the voices of the tions, and the Project adjusted its supervision schedule from poor are well-represented in the design of the follow-up proj- biannual to quarterly missions, maintaining constant contact ect to PPAF II--a project that will be remembered as a project with client communities to ensure responsiveness to needs of the people, by the people, and for the people. and priorities as they arose. Candidate projects needed to "regularly identify challenges in implementation and to REpLicABiLiTy demonstrate how they resolved them while building govern- PPAF techniques and methods are already being replicated ment and stakeholder ownership in the project." They also in other developing countries and in other business lines. A needed to "develop supervision approaches that could easily World Bank staff member from the Kecamatan Development be replicated by other projects." 1 Pakistan: Promoting Rural Growth and Poverty Reduction. World Bank Sustainable Development Unit, South Asia Region. Report 39303-PK. March 30, 2007. 2 Project Appraisal Document on a Proposed Credit to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the Second Poverty Alleviation Fund Project. Report No: 27176. October 31, 2003. 3 Pakistan Country Gender Assessment: Bridging the Gender Gap ­ Opportunities and Challenges. Environment and Social Development Sector Unit, South Asia Region, The World Bank. Report No. 32244-PAK. October 2005. 4 Women in Pakistan: An Economic and Social Survey. World Bank Country Study. 1989. 5 Pakistan: Joint Staff Assessment of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. Staffs of the International Development Agency and the International Monetary Fund. Report No. 27625-PK. February 12, 2004 6 Country Assistance Strategy for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the Period FY06-09. Report No. 35718-PAK. April 4, 2006. The World Bank. 7 Implementation Completion Report on a Credit in the Amount of US$90 Million to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for a Poverty Alleviation Fund Project. June 15, 2005. Report No: 32513. Finance and Private Sector Development Unit, South Asia Region. The World Bank. 8 The World Bank Pakistan Newsletter, March 2008, Issue 2 Qazi Azmat Isa is Senior Rural Development Specialist in the South Asia Sustainable Development Department and was the task team leader of the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation II Project when it was awarded the Agriculture and Rural Development department's Golden Plough Award for Excellence in Project Supervision in March 2008. Other members of the task team included Amer Zafar Durrani, Naila Ahmed, Afzal Mahmood, Asif Ali, Anwar Ali Bhatti, Riaz Mahmood, Javaid Afzal, Steve Jones, and Aized Mir, in addition to Kevin John Crockford who became task team leader at the end of 2008. THE WORLD BANK 1818 H Street. NW Washington, DC 20433 www.worldbank.org/rural